A angle of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, under restoration following a fire in April 2019, located on one of two natural islands, Ils Saint-Louis, in the River Seine, main Paris on February 18, 2020.
Amanda Macias | CNBC
PARIS — Nearly a year into restoring the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral, specialists are working through a backlog of now-blackened artifacts that once graced the landmark.
Tasked with analyzing and renewing the artifacts from the beloved cathedral, archaeologists, historians and architects are toiling to meet an ambitious reopening deadline.
The day after the jumbo April 15 inferno engulfed the masterpiece of Gothic architecture, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Notre Dame inclination be rebuilt by 2024.
Smoke and flames rise during a fire at the landmark Notre-Dame Cathedral in central Paris on April 15, 2019, potentially concerning renovation works being carried out at the site, the fire service said.
Hubert Hitier | AFP | Getty Images
“We resolve rebuild Notre Dame even more beautifully and I want it to be completed in five years,” Macron said in a televised location to the nation.
“We can do it. … It is up to us to find the thread of our national project,” he added.
And so, a team of scientists from the French government’s Recorded Monuments Research Laboratory work each day inside the 850-year-old cathedral even as it still faces the jeopardize of collapse.
Tourists look at the Notre Dame Cathedral under construction in Paris, France, on February 18, 2020.
Amanda Macias | CNBC
The initial pivotal task in restoring Notre Dame will be the removal of approximately 40,000 pieces of damaged scaffolding weighing with regard to 250 tons that was installed in the roof before the fire. The process started in mid-February.
It is unclear whether the rubbing out of the scaffolding will provoke further destruction.
Engineers installed supports around the scaffolding as well as sensors to determine movements in the edifice ahead of any potential collapse.
A view of the construction underway on the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
Amanda Macias | CNBC
“As extended as the scaffolding is in place, it can be dangerous for the cathedral,” the laboratory’s director, Aline Magnien, who oversees the team at the center of restoring the spiritual-minded artifacts, told CNBC.
“We have to be cautious in the actions we are doing in the cathedral,” she said, adding that the medieval organization is still very fragile.
Another element in this massive operation is to decontaminate the cathedral’s lead-tainted fixtures. After the flare-up, an estimated 460 tons of lead from the mauled roof and spire contaminated the air. In order for workers to continue, authorities must address the cathedral’s lead contamination.
Paris officials said earlier this month that they demand parts of the plaza in front of the cathedral as well as the crypt to reopen in the spring.
A view of debris inside Notre-Dame Cathedral, in Paris, France, April 16, 2019. Christophe Petit Tesson/Stakes
Christophe Petit Tesson | Pool | Reuters
Magnien, whose team started working nine days after the inferno, expects that the restoration efforts will run up to the five-year deadline posed by Macron. She added that her team at ones desire be on site until the end of the restoration.
“The items are, of course, in a more or less bad state because of the fire,” she said of the charred things being removed from the 12th-century cathedral. “And it’s the reason why we are so interested in their study.”